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Extragalactic Abundances of Hydrogen, Deuterium and Helium New Steps, Missteps and Next Steps

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Abstract

Estimates of the deuterium abundance in quasar absorbers are reviewed, including a brief account of incorrect claims published by the author and a brief review of the problem of hydrogen contamination. It is concluded that the primordial abundance may be universal with a value (D/H)P ≈ 10-4, within about a factor of two, corresponding to ΩBh 20.7 ≈ 0.0fs2 or η10 ≈ 2.7 in the Standard Big Bang. This agrees with current limits on primordial helium, YP ≤ 0.243, which are shown to be surprisingly insensitive to models of stellar enrichment. It also agrees with a tabulated sum of the total density of baryons in observed components. Much lower primordial deuterium (≈ 2 × 10-5) is also possible but disagrees with currently estimated helium abundances; the larger baryon density in this case fits better with current models of the Lyman-α forest but requires the bulk of the baryons to be in some currently uncounted form.

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  1. Departments of Physics and Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA

    Craig J. Hogan

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  1. Craig J. Hogan
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Hogan, C.J. Extragalactic Abundances of Hydrogen, Deuterium and Helium New Steps, Missteps and Next Steps. Space Science Reviews 84, 127–136 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005002814346

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